This weekend, we took the off-road version of the new Ford F-150 pickup through the highest elevation trail in California. It’d be a test for its new turbocharged engine and its ability on dirt, rocks and sand. Could America’s best selling vehicle hack it?

Intel Clover Trail. Sounds like a JJ Abrams movie about camping, right? But Clover Trail is actually the next generation Intel Atom chip that'll power both Windows 8 tablets and laptops. Which means you'll probably run into this chip pretty darn soon, so get familiar.

There isn't a pressing need for new map apps, since Google and Bing do such a good job of showing you everything around you and where you're going. But National Geographic's Trail Maps has you covered for camping trips where you're going to be away from a strong network connection for a while.

Kevin Gallagher spent six months hiking the Appalachian Trail's 2,200 miles, through snow and sun and wind fellow travelers. Lucky for you, he condensed the entire journey into a remarkable 4:37 of some of the most gorgeous stop-motion nature that the US has to offer. [Vimeo via Wired]

HardwareZone got the scoop on this upcoming Seashell 2 netbook designed by Karim Rashid. It has a 1.8GHz Pineview Atom N450 CPU, Windows 7, and a new slide-out battery…but its other specs are boringly normal—no Nvidia Ion graphics.